I just wrote a whole long (rather good) piece about the straw bale rendering weekend and then went and lost it all. Bugger.
I'll have to write it up again when I am in France next week.
In the meantime, I've borrowed a pic from Rik's site (The Bristol Green House)and you can see what we got up to by visiting his site.
Just a couple of weeks to go until we finally make our move to Devon.
Mentally, we're already there... :)
Going to the Bristol Green House tomorrow morning and Sunday for straw bale rendering.
S'gonna be well mucky but a lot of fun...
I didn't tell you about the straw bale demolition I helped with a couple of months ago.
It was strange the very first project I got involved with, being one to take apart a building that sadly had not got planning permission.
It had suffered 3 winters without lime or clay render and driving rain had damaged the bales and floor which had started rotting.
The planning furore was about the dwelling being 1m too close to the house. In fact, in this instance, the planners interpreted the house to include the coal bunker. It all got difficult and nasty. It was a sorry affair but thankfully Shan and family have now moved away from the place and have started anew.
Deconstruction was tricky as the site had hazards. All progessed well and quickly until the lattter stages of removing the bales. There weren't enough of us to remove the load borne massive beam across the top of the side walls.
In trying to get this down safely, the walls fell down (none of us were squished or injured) and a plank landed in the next door neighbour's greenhouse.
Not much of the materials were good for recycling - the sheep's wool had got damp and could not be re-used. However, a couple of other volunteers salvaged a great deal of wood which they will use in their craft business.
We managed to finish the deconstruction in one day and I went home sore and tired.
When I get a chance I will put up some photos, although probably not here - I'll put them on (yet another) web site that I've got on the go - Straw Bale Construction. Can someone please stop be buying web domains?!
Anyway, this might be a while because my laptop has finally given up the ghost after 7 years so I'm not really set up for it.
Anyway, it's 9.30am so time to start the day, bake wholemeal banana bread and work out what will bring the other kind of dough in...
Have a great day,
Rob
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